


Into the Dawn

by azurefishnets



Category: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Genre: Time Shenanigans, ghosttrick10th
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:48:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurefishnets/pseuds/azurefishnets
Summary: Adult Lynne consoles her child self through shattered time.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Into the Dawn

Time was passing, until it could pass no longer. It froze, splintered into dozens of mirror shards, reflections upon reflections gazing at each other, startled, angry, shattered in some cases. An old woman peered from one, sad wise eyes under a red-gray mop of hair, watching time stutter, and that shard bumped into another, spinning both into nothingness and splintering into tiny, twinkling tears that fell away from the others. A bright spark of a child, still holding the stick that had held a roasted yam, dangled helplessly as she sobbed from another, calling for someone to help her. A red-haired young woman blinked from yet another, burdened with the weight of the girl on her back and the depths of the ocean above her. The water was already up to her chest. Countless more red-haired women spun around and beyond them, mirror shards clinking and shattering, but for the moment these two were bonded in a timeless instant of darkness beyond grief, the cores of them reaching for one last connection.

“H-hello?” the older spoke. “Can you hear me?”

“I- I can hear you…” the child cried. “Help me! Please! The bad man…he…I can’t…” She squirmed and struggled, but it seemed time had stopped for everything but her and the man’s arms around her were like iron.

“It’s OK, it’s OK. Just…” The elder of the two squirmed herself, but the water around her was like concrete, holding her still. “Just stay still. It’s all going to be all right. Someone’s coming for you.”

“How do you know that?” the child cried out. “I’m scared! Who are you?”

“It happened for me, and it will happen for you. I’m Lynne. What’s your name?” She knew already, but some things have to happen in their proper order, even when time is stopped.

“I’m Lynne too,” the child said, sniffling. She stared at the other, taking in her hair and eyes, barely changed from her younger self. “You…are you me?”

“No more than you’re me,” the elder Lynne said, smiling wryly. “But, yeah, once I was you. And someday you’ll be me.”

“Is that a good thing…?” the child said dubiously, looking past the older Lynne into the catastrophe happening around her. “Who’s coming to rescue you?”

“I… don’t know.” The young woman shook her head. “I had…a friend that went ahead, but I don’t know if he’ll get there in time. Or even what ‘in time’ means in this case. But you know what? I’ve been dead before, and I got better! So I know it’s going to be OK this time too.”

“I don’t know if I want to be you,” the child confessed. “It doesn’t _look_ like it gets any better.”

“It gets a _lot_ better than where you are,” the elder Lynne said, smiling. “You’ll see. You’re gonna grow up strong, and cool…have an amazing dog…get a sister you never expected…even have two incredible heroes and mentors who’ll make sure you get to have your dream job.”

“Wait, mother and father are going to have another child?” the girl’s eyes widened. “I…I thought they hated each other.”

The elder Lynne huffed out a breath in something that wasn’t quite a laugh as she watched the mirror shards spin around them. “Eh, you’re not wrong. I’ll just…leave it as a surprise, OK?”

“That’s not fair!”

“Mother and father never let you have a dog,” Lynne pointed out. “But when you grow up, you’re gonna have the best one ever.”

“Huh.” The child was quiet for a moment. “But…what’s happening now? Why are we here?”

“I don’t know, honestly.” Lynne peered out into the dark. “Sissel? Are you there?” A few other Lynnes called back to her, but there was no other answer.

“I guess…he went somewhere,” she said dubiously. “Or, um, somewhen.”

“Am I gonna make more sense when I grow up?” the child asked helplessly.

“…Only sometimes, I’m afraid.” Lynne chuckled, her eyes sad. “I can’t help you, you know.”

“I know.” The child blinked. “Nobody ever helps me.”

“I know.” Lynne was silent for a moment, as they both thought of the strange, lonely childhood that had brought them to roast yams alone in the park. “That’s going to change. I promise. But right now, _you_ can help me.”

“How? I can’t even move.”

“Well, when you can? Let yourself be rescued.”

The girl gave her a skeptical look. “Uh, yeah.”

“Not just there, with the bad man. Let the people around you take care of you a little, OK? It’s OK to love them.”

The girl’s eyes slid away from hers. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yeah, you do.” Lynne twitched her head in a nod to the girl on her back. “You’re gonna love your dog, and your “sister”, and your family. Mother and father…they didn’t do right by us. They “used” us, but they didn’t let you “use” them back. But someday, sooner than you think? There will be people who will, and you should let them.”

“I really don’t understand!” the girl cried out. “I don’t want to be used! That sounds awful!”

“I know. But someday it will be OK, and when that happens, you’ll know. But never let yourself be “used” by someone who won’t let you do it back, OK? It has to be an equal exchange.”

“I guess.”

“Just trust me.”

“I’ll try.” The child suddenly shook violently, the time in her shard restarting with a jerk. “I… what’s happening! Lynne!”

“I’ll see you later!” Lynne smiled at her as the child’s shard began to glow like the dawn rising. “Don’t worry. It’s gonna be OK!”

The glow rose around the girl, then burst into a tide of sparks that flowed around the other shards and formed into a glowing being of light, a brilliant kitten-shape that jumped into the shard and disappeared. An instant later, the girl and her time were gone, spinning on into the future.

“Looks like you found your friend…” Lynne murmured. “I wish I knew where mine was.”

“He’ll find you again.”

Lynne would have jumped if she could have moved. “Who’s there?”

“Me again,” the amused voice spoke, and another shard spun into place, an old woman’s wise eyes peering sharply at her. “Or you. Someday. Sort of.”

“Wow!” Lynne laughed. “So I’m gonna make it after all?”

“Someday. Sort of.”

“Oh. I’m gonna die again first, aren’t I.”

“Honestly? I don’t know. But the you that becomes me has a very different path than a submarine sinking into the dark. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.” Lynne blinked. “Well, almost not. Kamila will be all right, right?”

“Definitely. Just about everyone you met tonight is gonna live.”

“Just about?”

“The horrible hitmen…you’ll never see them again. I don’t know what happened to them, honestly. Are you sad?”

“Oh. Um, no, not really. Well, as long as Detective Jowd and Kamila are OK too.”

“Them, and more that you didn’t even really realize how they helped you at the time.” The older Lynne smiled, a mischievous grin undimmed by age. “You have so much to see left. And so do I!”

“Yeah! I can’t wait to see it.”

“I can’t wait _for_ you to see it,” the woman said. “You’ve got an amazing life ahead of you. After this one last death. Sort of.”

“But Sissel’s not here this time…”

“He is. You’ll see someday.”

“I don’t understand, but that’s OK. I trust you…me.”

“Good. I trust you to bring yourself to me, in time.”

“And then what happens?” Lynne said, smiling. She knew already, but some things have to happen in their proper order, even when time is stopped.

“Come and find out! I promise you one thing…there’s plenty of chicken! And a whole lot of love.” The older woman peered out. “And someone who loves you is coming for you now. Good luck!” Her shard spun away and back into time, which began again to pass around them.

“You too!” The shard around the younger Lynne faded away, and she stepped out alone into the abyss, floating in nothing with mirror shards floating around her. The dawn rose around her and light reflected from the shards all around, coalescing into another glowing light being, small but far fluffier than the kitten earlier.

“Who…?” she whispered.

“It’s been a long time since I heard you call me,” an old voice said. “I’ve been Ray for so long…”

“Ray…?” Lynne looked puzzled. “But…”

The voice seemed younger as it continued to speak. “But to you, Miss Lynne, I’m always Missile!”

“Missile!” Lynne gathered the glowing dog into her arms, giggling as he licked her face. She, too, began to glow. “Is it time to go?”

“Yeah! Let’s go, Miss Lynne! Let’s go find Miss Kamila and everyone else!”

They glowed together, brighter and brighter, becoming a brilliant flame that drew all the shards around them together into one vast puzzle, the lines in the glass glowing and melding together to form one great mirror that reflected a child being gathered into the arms of emergency personnel, her once-captor and her once-rescuer loaded into a pair of waiting ambulances. A man in a white coat hurried toward the scene, his face drawn and worried, speaking quickly to officers. A kitten jumped into the rescuer’s green coat. Time mended itself and drove onward, the mirror reflecting the dawn of a new day. Lynne and her dog followed ever after, anxious to see what the future would bring and joyful to be there as it did.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 10th Anniversary, Ghost Trick! I will always adore you for what you have brought to my life. May you endure for many more years! (And be ported to the Switch!!)


End file.
